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CHORAL MUSIC REVIEW Reticent, Austere Medieval Christmas December 9, 2002
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By Kip Cranna
It was Christmas in Somber Olde England on Saturday night as the male sextet Lionheart appeared at Grace Cathedral with a concert of Medieval English music that was beautifully crafted but staid in its execution. The satisfying account of seldom-heard repertoire delivered in remarkable intimacy and precision veered more toward the austere than the joyful, and might have suited the Lenten season as well as Yuletide.
The talented New York-based group had given a great deal of thought to planning the evening's fare — performed as part of a West Coast tour that also included Cal Tech in Pasadena and Villa Montalvo in the South Bay. Entitled “Tydings Trew: Feasts of Christmas in Medieval England,” the program included carols, plainchant, and motets associated with seven different liturgical events: The Annunciation, The Nativity, and the Feast days for Saint Stephen (Dec. 26), Saint John the Evangelist (Dec. 27), The Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), and The Epiphany (the visit of the Wise Men, celebrated January 6), as well as the feast of the British martyr Saint Thomas (Archbishop of Canterbury), whose feast conveniently falls on December 29.
It was gratifying to note the obvious care with which this group — countertenor Lawrence Lipnik, tenors John Olund and Michael Ryan-Wenger, baritones Jeffrey Johnson and Richard Porterfield, and bass Kurt-Own Richards — worked so carefully at authentic-sounding Medieval style and pronunciation. (Who would have guessed that “A, my dere Son” was pronounced “Ah, moy dare sone?”
 As the program notes pointed out, the carol originated as a raucous secular circle dance in which a soloist belted out sometimes bawdy verses and all joined in for the lusty chorus. Co-opted by Christian missionaries, the carol became a more genteel affair, but there were few hints of its lively origins in a performance that treated these pieces as fragile and precious, and featured a surfeit of laconic pianissimo. To be fair, the singers were probably taking into account the overripe acoustics of Grace Cathedral, which can turn brisk tunes into mush for listeners far removed from the source. Several chants from the Sarum Rite (originating from the Salisbury Cathedral and subtly differing from the Gregorian tradition) were featured in the program. One was the opening hymn “A solis ortus cardine,” sung in unison and in organum at the fifth while the group processed into the sanctuary. The lovely Annunciation carol “Hayl Mary, ful of grace,” its verses in two-part harmony alternating with a chorus in three parts, ended with pungently antique sounding “Landini cadences.” The motet “Venter tuus” offered a fine example of so-called “English descant,” based on a semi-improvised style featuring much parallel motion. The group sang it with pinpoint intonation and feathery-light tone. Among the Nativity carols, “As I outrode this endres night,” from the same 16th-century pageant that gave us the more familiar Coventry Carol, was a standout with its finely wrought imitative counterpoint. The carol “Ecce quod natura” (Behold how nature changes her law) was sung with such mystic awe that its message could have been mistaken for a lament. Things finally came to life a bit with the lively, oft-recorded “Nowel, nowel, Owt of your slepe aryse,” which came close to rousing.
The Epiphany carol “Ave Rex angelorum” (Hail, King of the angels), written in three parts throughout — a rarity in the 15th-century — was a haunting gem of a piece, lovingly executed with dead-on intonation in its stark double-leading-tone closes. The only work on the program whose composer was identified was the motet “Gaude virgo,” by William Cornysh (from the Court of Henry VIII), whose elaborate vocal lines echoed the works of mainland composers but were tempered with warmer English harmonies. A richly hued rendition of Gustav Holst's “In the Bleak Midwinter” served as a latter-day encore. Though more reticent than robust, Lionheart had given lavish care to preparing and performing this intriguing repertoire.
(Clifford (Kip) Cranna is Musical Administrator of the San Francisco Opera and Program Editor for the Carmel Bach Festival, and teaches in the Adult Extension Division of the San Francisco Conservator of Music.)
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